Born in Switzerland and raised in Europe, Asia, I eventually made New York City my home, and never looked back. Here you'll find humanity at its most extreme, where the best—and worst—of our natures are written large in several languages on every park, building, and street corner.

It's my interest in this humanity that informs my photography. With an emphasis on emotion over pixels, and story over the staged tableau, my images are ultimately about the fleeting, unguarded moments when our true selves are revealed in the best possible light.

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"Very often an artist would exhibit a photograph that is well executed yet isn't particularly complimentary to the subject. Ismael Fernandez isn't such an artist. He truly cares about the people his photographs depict and it only enhances the overall effect. Spectacular!" —Katya Shubova, tango dancer

"A beautiful artist with a sense of time and place and a keen eye for capturing the most evanescent art of all— the art of the dance and the dance of relationship."—Judith Rose, dancer and founder of Vital Movement™

"Ismael, your photos are incredible! You capture the moments in between moments, the sparks, the aligning of energies, of minds, of hearts. Your lens is like a doorway to the microcosm of those 4ish minutes of music during which dancers stop hiding from each other and from themselves! Don't ever close it."—Steve Rekhler, blues and lindy hop dancer